Autumn Term at The Playing Space is “exam season” for our teachers and students. Our older students, who are taking medal exams, will already have done quite a lot of preliminary work, reading plays, investigating characters, planning speeches… So, it’s easy to see December’s LAMDA results as the ultimate goal. After all, a shiny certificate and personalised report form with comments from the examiner feels like proof of achievement. But at The Playing Space, we believe the real value of LAMDA exams lies in what children gain during the preparation, not just the official result.
Here are some of the skills, qualities, and transformations we see every year that don’t necessarily show up on the mark sheet.
1) Confidence that Comes from Within
LAMDA exams aren’t about being the loudest in the room. Examiners aren’t looking for the showiest, most precocious children. They want to see real personalities coming into the room, and children who have found their own voice. We want our students to have a sense of ownership over their pieces, so we let them choose pieces that they love (within the parameters of the exam) and also give them responsibility for staging and developing their own character. Examiners can tell when students are reproducing a carbon-copy performance, and they often feel flat in the exam room.
2) Memory, Focus and Resilience
Learning a script or a poem is a huge cognitive workout. Many of the exams strengthen memory skills and they all develop concentration and perseverance. They learn how to break a big task into small, achievable steps, and not give up as soon as something becomes difficult: exactly the kind of skill set that helps with revision and study later in school life.
3) Emotional Intelligence
Exploring a character’s thoughts, feelings, and motives builds empathy. Students get to “walk in someone else’s shoes,” which helps them understand different perspectives. That’s a life skill as much as it’s a drama one.
4) Coping with Change
Things don’t always go to plan: a line might be forgotten, nerves might kick in, an examiner’s question might feel tricky. But part of the exam journey is learning that mistakes aren’t disasters. Students practise recovering, adapting, and moving forward – skills that set them up for future challenges. I often say to my students: “something will definitely go wrong in the exam – you will skip a line, or drop a prop, or forget to put a chair on stage… you don’t know what it will be, but something will happen that you weren’t expecting. The important thing is how you manage this – do you take it in your stride, or fall apart?” The rehearsal process is as much about practising recovery when something goes wrong as anything else.
5) A Sense of Pride
Finally, there’s the feeling of pride that comes not from a mark, but from seeing the journey through. Standing up in front of an examiner after weeks of preparation takes courage. That bravery – and the knowledge that “I did it!” – is something no number can measure.
So, what should parents focus on?
By all means, celebrate the certificates and results when they come out, but don’t forget to celebrate the day of the actual exam – if your child goes into the exam room confidently, and comes out smiling, then this is just as important as the mark given by the examiner – maybe more important. There are so many things to “put in the scales” when it comes to weighing up success in exams:
Did you enjoy the process?
Did you get good feedback from your teacher?
Do you feel that you have developed new skills?
Are you transferring those skills outside of the rehearsal room and exam room into other areas of your life?
So don’t forget to focus on all these questions, as well as the number at the bottom of the exam report. Because in the end, LAMDA exams are not just about marks. They’re about growth, courage, and creativity – and those are achievements that will serve you for the rest of your life!